Light the fire

If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.
~ Mevlana Rumi Quotes from Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance



The element of fire is alive inside of all of us. It is there to burn brightly to create or destroy depending on how we wish to invoke it's power within our lives. In effect fire creates space through what it helps to release. Fire burns through what no longer serves us and allows us leave behind whatever separates us from us. What we are left with in the ashes is love. It gets hot and intense and sometimes feels like you are going to burn away completely, and sometimes that is true as well. Sometimes we need to pass away for the larger life, or larger love to live on within us. Ultimately that's where the practice can take us.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says it like this "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."


Fire is something you have to spark though. You have to invite the fire in. No one can do it for you. If they try it's like trying to light a wet piece of wood. It's not going to happen no matter how hard they try.

In every moment and in every practice can you give yourself permission to burn?

More Books (Art of Mindful Living)

A Path With Heart- Jack Kornfield

Anything by Pema Chodron

This is another teacher I really like, her books are good-Sharon Salzberg

Please also refer to some of the previous posts

Thanks so much for the wonderful discussions tonight

If I remember anymore I'll keep posting. Also if you have book suggestion just reply to this post and offer it up.

Have a great weekend!

Keeping Quiet

I love the following poem by Pablo Neruda and am using it as the inspiration for this weeks class. It's hips again for those of you who have been working with me the last few weeks, we keep on opening up to what's there and seeing if we can work with it, be with it, and grow with it. Here's to your hips!




Keeping Quiet


Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth,
let's not speak any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn't be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren't unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.
Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I'll go.
-from Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon
Translated by Stephen Mitchell

This present moment is as open as you are willing to be....-David Deida

I love that quote from "Naked Buddhism" By David Deida
It is a reminder to me that opening is a process that I have to choose to make. Nothing outside of me will invite me to open. The invitation to open to life more deeply and fully is mine alone to make. David also has a chapter in his book that talks about sooner or later this present moment will be your last. This breath right now could be it, or the next, or this one. Just as you are reading this your very life could end. That's a little morbid but truth is when we think of death it reminds us to live, when we don't think of death, we fear it.

Opening up to life deeply means also opening to death deeply. To notice the inhales of the day as well as the exhales. To feel freshness, as well as closure. In our practice of yoga we have an opportunity with every breath, every pose, every transition to open to everything. We can observe the creation, sustaining, dissolution, and then the concealment and revealment. This is known as the five acts of Siva. Nothing is fixed and everything is along the journey in process within these five acts.

When we feel like we are resisting, clenching, clinging, for whatever reason the beauty of opening is that at any given point whether you are enjoying your life or not, if it's good or if it's bad, the truth is it is already changing right now, it's in process along the 5 acts. The key is to not get stuck in to believing that any of the acts is forever. In fact every dimension of life, your life and the life of everything is in stage along one of the acts. Every relationship, situation, life form, etc is in motion along the 5 part path.

When we open we allow ourselves to be in the journey, arriving not at somewhere but just allowing ourselves to experience fully our path in the act right now. Not to rush, change, manipulate, or anything, just allow ourselves to open to the moment as our guide and teacher. Knowing that what will unfold if we open rather than resist will lead us beautifully into the next chapter.

You can feel this very tangible in an asana practice. The more you force things to happen, the more you run into resistance. The more you practice with this mindset of this should be this way, that should be that way, then the more risk you run of losing what can be. The more fixed you are the less spontaneity, creativity, and freedom you allow and then practice and life become a function, or a to do, rather than willing experience of profound opening.

Right now, are you opening or are you stuck? Can you gently encourage yourself to open?

This moment is as open as you are willing to be.

Peace,

Michael

One of my favs is coming to town!

Desiree Rumbough is a gifted and amazing teacher who will be visiting us here in the Chicago area. I encourage you if you can to check her out. You will be expanded--deeply.

Check it out at Yoga Werks

Thank You Ann Arbor

Thanks to all of you for participating in the weekend workshops. It was so great to see many of you again and nice to meet so many new faces as well. Your enthusiasm was heartening and inspiring. I can't wait to come back. Stay tuned for the next installment of workshops :)

For those of you who asked for the book recommendations here ya go:

Bringing Yoga to Life

Everyday Grace

The Gift of Change

The Wisdom of No Escape

Yoga Body Buddha Mind

A great yoga asana book (anusara)

Hope these are helpful. A good start at least. Anyone have other recommendations?


Stay up to date on my workshops across the midwest at www.michaelfaithyoga.com

When boredom sets in

You know you have those days where what is between your toes is more fascinating then the pose you are in. The lint on the mat, or the whistle of your neighbors nose seems way more important and interesting than your breath or the alignment of your hips.

I know I've been there too. I am often reminded in very humorous ways that sometimes we check out at varying degrees in our practice. Sometimes we check out just for a moment, or maybe for many days, weeks, or months at a time in our practice.

I am often reminded of the quote from Marianne Williamson from her book Everyday Grace that the only way to be excited is to be exciting and excited yourself. No external circumstances need to be our entertainment. In practice the same is true.

This week I have been having everyone start in child's pose. Connecting to this pose invites us to explore the archetype of the child. Connecting to the freshness and the willingness to be in the moment. Inspiring awe and magic because anything is possible and everything is open--including us! Life hasn't closed us yet, or at least not fully. Child's pose draws us into the remembrance of what it means to have a sense of innocence. (note-I realize that not everyone has had or does have a happy innocent childhood, but I am talking about archetypes/myths).

From innocence I feel all of us are then more connected to the possibility of a larger life. Innocence create space and openness. When we are open there is magic and miracles. I like the idea in Marianne's books about how if we think of miracles as metaphors then they will be. If we honor and give power to the possibility that miracles do indeed happen and in fact magic DOES happen then those things amplify within our experience and life. It's kind of like you either believe you are a part of all that is, or you're not. If you are, you have access to everything, there is nothing separate from you. You are woven into the very fabric of divinity and in that spaciousness everything and anything is possible. Not in some cheesy kind of "secret" way, but in a very real, practical and sacred way.

Our lack of magic, or our lack of experiencing magic in our lives doesn't happen because it doesn't exist. It happens because we no longer care to see it. When it happens through grace we usually chalk it up to coincidence or randomness. Miracles and magic are happening all around us. When you return to your open self you see it. It happens from within you too. I (or anyone) can't open you to a magical or miraculous existence. That is you, you are that.

Practice takes us there. When in your practice you start checking out just remember your access to miracles and magic depends on you allowing it room to blossom. Nothing can take place without your permission. In any given moment you have the choice to open or close. It's such a huge responsibility, and one we don't often take. I know for me when I check out I often blame the environment, or the class, or the teacher, or the music, or anything other than my own unwillingness to shine bright in that moment. It's kind of like sometimes we know how to do it, and know what it will do, and yet we don't do it. Isn't that funny? We know something will be good for us, we know exactly how to do that good thing, and yet we don't give ourselves that. We have the key, we see the lock, we know it fits, and yet we don't turn that key sometimes. Wow.

The intention this week for me and I pass it on to you as well is to see how often we are there with key in hand refusing to open and rather than close, even if it is hard to do, can we open. Let us all have a magic filled miraculous weekend grounded in our willingness to open open open and be free.